


On Flaming Wings - Attack on Dragons

by cherrycottoncandy, DryiceNightfury



Series: Attack on Dragons [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - How to Train Your Dragon Fusion, Alternate Universe - Shingeki no Kyojin Fusion, Multi, attack on titan - Freeform, attack on titan characters - Freeform, how to train your dragon world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrycottoncandy/pseuds/cherrycottoncandy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DryiceNightfury/pseuds/DryiceNightfury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After hearing about a Bewilderbeast attack on the Isle of Shinganshina, Jean Kirschtein made a decision to sail off to an island in the Rose Islands to learn the ways of the dragon riders to earn a spot in the Center Watch to save himself from an inevitable attack, but events on the island slowly change his ways of thinking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to the Island

**Author's Note:**

> According to tradition in How to Train Your Dragon, runts are usually supposed to get the name "Hiccup" as shown in an episode of the HTTYD television series, hence why Shadis thought Armin's name was Hiccup to begin with, just in case you were confused on that first part!
> 
> \---
> 
> There will most likely be jeanmarco in the future
> 
> \---
> 
> Written by DryiceNightfury  
> Edited by cherrycottoncandy

Jean’s POV

 

“DO I EVEN _HAVE_ TO GUESS YOUR NAME, HICCUP?” Our superior, Keith Shadis, yells at a smaller kid. 

“A-Armin Arlert, sir! From Shinganshina!” the blonde boy says.

“Your parents held high hopes for you, didn’t they? Going against tradition? WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR, ARLERT?!”

“Well, it was actually my Grandfather, sir! And I’m here to help the Vikings against the dragons!”

“Isn’t that just great! I’m sure they’ll make quick work of you with their fire!”

He was just throwing out insults left and right, trying to break the trainees. We were going to be fighting and training dragons, after all. A weak Viking is hardly a Viking at all.

Me? I’m not at all weak. In fact, I can even say I’m probably the strongest in this training camp. I came here to learn the ways of the dragon riders so that I would go to the island farthest away from the wilderness and clans that were constantly picking fights. After hearing about how a fucking _Bewilderbeast_ attacked the Isle of Shinganshina and killed countless Vikings, I’d rather stay as far away as possible from the now destroyed island. Having a strong-ass dragon by my side will make me feel even better.

“HOW ABOUT YOU? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!”

“Thomas Wagner, from the Isle of Trost!”

_At least I know I’m not the only one from my island to take a ship out here. I wonder if he’s here for the same reason I am._

“AND YOU?”

The instructor’s dragon, that, by the way, had FOUR heads, trailed behind him and eerily loomed around his shoulder.

“Sir! Mina Carolina from the Isle of Karanese, sir!”

“ARE YOU THE BEST VIKING ON KARANESE?!”

“I might just be, sir!”

_Maybe he’ll skip over me, I look just as tough as those other trainees._

“FOURTH ROW, ABOUT FACE!”

He’s walking down my row. _Stay cool, Jean._ I think I’ve figured out how he’s picking out the Vikings to harass; the ones that shudder when the venus fly trap of dragons behind him glares at them with its four pairs of eyes get the verbal beating-

“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING SO SMUG ABOUT?! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!”

_Shit. Did I really look afraid? Oh well. My time to shine._

“Jean Kirschtein from the Isle of Trost, sir!”

“And you’re here for what reason?”

“I’m going to join the Center Watch, away from the dangers of wild dragons!”

_Nailed it._

“So you want to live within the perimeter of the Sina islands, huh?”

“That’s the plan, yeah. Wouldn’t want to get maimed by a-”

Suddenly there was a splitting pain in my forehead, I kneeled to the ground clutching my bruise. _He headbutted me! What the fuck?! I was just giving my exact answer! Screw verbal beating, I just received that shit physically._

“YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TIME TO SIT DOWN WHEN SOMEONE HITS YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH A SHIELD OR HAMMER?!”

Shadis’ four-headed dragon that was elegantly strutting behind him let out a laugh-like noise. This will most likely be a regular thing here on this island. Shadis looked even more pissed off for some reason I can’t even come up with (maybe because the skull-cracking headache he just gave me) and moved on to yelling at the freckled guy standing next to me. Thank the Gods that part was over for me, at least.

“WIPE THAT SMILE OFF OF YOUR FACE!”

“Marco Bodt, sir! From Jinae, in the southern Rose islands, sir!”

“WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THREE YEARS?!”

“I want to join the Center Watch and serve to protect the Chief, sir!”

I highly doubt that. No one just wants to go and protect the Chief for the sake of protecting the Chief.

“YOU’LL BE SURE TO DISTRACT THE DRAGONS FROM THE CHIEF WITH THAT HAPPY-GO-LUCKY SMILE OF YOURS!”

Shadis and his dragon harassed the hell out of some more trainees. He even made a girl run until the sun went down for smuggling a mutton into the ranks and took away her eating rights for the next few days. After we broke ranks, some guys with their fancy dragons brought us to the living quarters; house after house lined up along the cliffside.

They were just like the houses back on Trost. Shingled roofs that looked like the scales on a dragon, arched doorways, and wooden-carved dragon heads were carved into the top of each building. The only difference in these houses were the rectangular holes that were obviously cut into the roofs. Did they _want_ us to freeze to death during the night?

“Alright, three to four Vikings per house to avoid clutter when you all get your dragons,” One of the men said to another. Nodding, the man who was just spoken to hopped on his dragon and walked towards the big group of dragon-less Vikings before him. Guess it’s time to make some friends.

 

* * *

 

I got assigned to a house with, what I could only guess was the head of a Deadly Nadder carved into the top of the arched entryway. The first thing I noticed was that damn hole in the roof. Aside from that, there was a kid who was unpacking his stuff on one of the nearby “beds”, a slab of wood with a pillow and a blanket. He was small in stature and had a shaven head. The other kid across the room was the smiley freckled guy from earlier. Marco, I think it was. _Great, I’m the last one here._

“So I’m given no choice to the bed I want?” I say looking above, noticing the fucking hole right over the last bed.  
  
“Nope,” The bald kid smirks. _Fan-fucking-tastic._

“I can switch, if its too much of a problem,” Marco smiles.

“No, it’s fine, I can just go with the other complainers and get a cover for that thing,” I point up at the roof. “What is it even for, anyways?”

“I think it’s for the dragons,” Marco says.

“Yeah, they like to watch you sleep, and think about how good you’ll taste,” Baldy says maliciously.

“That’s just perfect, now I know I’ll be the first one in the mouth of a dragon if we get attacked while we’re asleep or something,” I sigh.

“I’m Marco Bodt, by the way,” the freckled kid walks over and holds out his hand.  
  
“Jean Kirschtein,” I took his hand and he smiled at me. _Is this kid ever unhappy?_

“You weren’t smiling at me earlier, right? When Shadis used his head as a battering ram against mine?” I slightly frown.

“I sure was!” The bald kid tunes in. “Oh, where are my manners…”

“Where _are_ your manners?” I shot back.

“Connie Springer from the Isle of Ragako!” He jumps up from his bed and holds out his hand.

“Yeah, I caught that much before Shadis’ dragon picked you up with two of its heads,” I shook his hand.

“It wasn’t all that bad, it didn’t poison me and I _swear to gods_ , his dragon smelled like chocolate! If you ask me, I want whatever kind of dragon he has!”

“It’s just the first day, Connie, you should probably find out more about the kinds of dragons before you up and decide what you would like right off the bat,” Marco tells him.

“Why would you care, Marco? You’re also aiming for the Center Guard, we won’t keep our dragons from this place anyways,” I huff. There’s no point in establishing a friendship with one if we’re just going to get cooler ones in their place. Since Marco’s shooting for Center Guard, he should at least know that.

“I think it’s best to make some memories, Jean. We’ll be raising them from hatchlings, there’s no doubt that we’re going to get attached to them,” Marco smiles.

“Raising them, then releasing them into the wild, probably for other vikings to fight against and kill in the future. If you ask me, I’d rather not go through that, especially if I come to really love the thing.”

I’m not going to get an emotional bond with a dragon, because everyone knows how that ends. If the Viking’s dragon dies, it’s like losing a relative or a really close friend. Of course, I’m here to _avoid_ that exact thing from happening. Well, that and saving my own ass. Nothing these guys say can change my mind.

Theres a low roar and some banging on the front door. Time to get to the arena. Fixing my helmet, I head towards the door with Marco and Connie. Who knows what we’ll be doing on the first day, I hope it’s not just some kind of activity that involves writing notes.

 

* * *

 

As soon as I enter the arena, I instantly realize that theres only about thirteen Vikings here. Thirteen and the girl from earlier that was running around the arena as punishment. _Did I miss a memo or something? How many dropped out since we were assigned to houses?!_ Shadis and his intimidating, to say the least, dragon stand next to a table. There are weapon crates along the walls, shields piled up on the floor next to them. 

“We’ve only chosen a few Vikings for each arena. If we let a dragon loose, there’d be no room for you guys to run or hide for your lives,” Shadis states. Way to be blunt about it.

He holds out a book in front of him. A really big book.

“The Book of Dragons. The most important thing on this island. This will be your key to learning about and understanding the habits of dragons, both good and bad.” He tosses the brick of a book on the table. “Study up, you’ll be tested on Stoker class dragons next week.”

“What kind of test, sir?” The Viking from my island, Thomas, asks.

“Written and physical. You’ll be in the arena with two stoker class dragons and nothing but a shield to arm yourself with at first. There will be a weapons rack full of tools for you to use, but only if you can make it there fast enough.”

You can hear an audible gulp coming from a few of the Vikings. It’s not like they’re going to let the dragons kill us if we fail, right? If that’s the case, it would have been a better idea to stay back at home.

“So what you’re saying is that we have to kill the dragons or be killed by them?” Some brunette kid asks.

“Kill them or subdue them. We’d rather the latter, since we have a limited amount of dragons to work with here.”

The gate behind us opens and two Vikings wave Shadis over. His dragon follows close behind.

“Don’t slack off, trainees. Unless you want to end up dead by the following week,” our superior calls out.

“Wait, but we only have one book!” Connie yells.

Too late. The gate lowered and we were left here in the arena with weapons, shields, and the dragon book. If there weren’t vikings and their dragons watching over us from outside the chained arena, I’m pretty sure at least one of the vikings in here would have chosen the destructive items over the book.

They keep the dragons locked up in rooms surrounding the arena, by the sounds coming from behind the thoroughly locked up gates. One wrongly pulled lever and we’re all going to be torched.

“I guess the right thing to do before we start reading is to introduce ourselves,” A shorter blonde guy says.

“Armin Arlert, right?” Marco asks. “From Shinganshina?”

Right. He was there when the ice spitting dragon totaled the island. Armin nodded to Marco.

“I came here with my friends, Eren and Mikasa,” Armin gestures to the brunette kid from earlier and a rather beautiful lady, if I do say so myself.

“That must mean that you three are all from the Isle of Shinganshina?! No way! I’ll have to ask you guys some questions about the big-ass dragon that attacked! I heard it got all of the dragons that weren’t with their riders to fight with it!” Connie says excitedly.

“Hey, Connie, I wouldn’t bring that up right now…” Marco thoughtfully states as everyone sat down.

“Nah, it’s fine. The dragon attack wasn’t all that bad. I mean, the Bewilderbeast couldn’t have doubled the Red Death in size,” Eren says. “I’m just surprised that it wasn’t associating with Vikings for the attack. The thing was intelligent, though, I’ll give it that. It didn’t exactly get the riderless dragons to fight, it seemed to have brought a wave of wild dragons with it when it arrived.”

“It wasn’t all that bad? What about all of the people that died? The Maria islands are now full of wild dragons that are extremely territorial and won’t let any Viking past without an extremely one-sided fight,” I sigh, propping my arm up on the table and resting my head in my hand.

“It wouldn’t be so one-sided if the Scouts had more Vikings to join them like I am,” Eren retorts.

“I wonder why no Viking joins the Scouts. Maybe it’s because of that fact that they go out to fight in unknown territory against clans and dragons that know the lay of the land better than they do? It’s just a thought, you know, and the reason why they have the highest death rate out of all of the branches.”

He’s completely and utterly _pissed._

“You _trying_ to start something, Kirschtein?” He stood from his spot.

“If that’s what you want. After all, you’re pretty keen on fighting, am I right? There are some axes and swords over in the corner…” I slowly got up.

We were so brutally interrupted by the loud bellow of a dragon and some loud banging as the running girl from earlier leaned against a gate to catch her breath. She stumbled forwards and continued her agonizing route around the perimeter of the arena.

She just gave me a brilliant idea.

“Eren, how about instead of fighting it out, you against me, we take this to a larger scale,” I glanced over to the gate. “Next week, when we’re in the arena against the dragons, we’ll see who can kill a dragon first. How about it?” I hold out my hand. Theres no way he can pass this up.

“Eren, stand down,” Mikasa puts her hand on Eren’s shoulder.

“Gods, Mikasa, I don’t need you to tell me its too dangerous,” He pushes her hand off and shakes mine. “It’s on, Kirschtein.”

 

* * *

 

We finished up the introductions after about ten minutes or so. Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlert came from the Isle of Shinganshina. I already sort of knew Connie and Marco from being housemates, the tallest guy in the room went by the name of Bertholdt Hoover, his friend who was only slightly shorter than himself’s name is Reiner Braun. A freckled girl who was about the same height as me, Ymir. The shortest girl in the arena, Krista. We even managed to get mutton-girl’s name, which turned out to be Sasha. Standing a little further away from the group, looking at the group gathered at the table with icy eyes, her name was Annie. Lastly, there was Thomas and Mina from the ranks earlier. 

“This book isn’t going to read itself,” Armin states as he opened up to the first page of the massive book. _Stoker Class, filled with dragons that exclusively breathe fire. Most, if not all Stoker dragons are immune to fire and can set themselves on fire._ We’re definitely off to a good start. I can just picture the arena next week: On fire. There’s not much else to it.

“Okay, first dragon… Terrible Terror. Small dragons, roughly .46 meters in length,” Armin begins, pointing at the drawn picture of a gecko-like dragon. It had spines running along its back all the way to the tail, which ended with an arrowhead-like spike. The dragon itself didn’t look terrifying.

“That’s not bad at all, a Viking could easily take one of those down,” Reiner laughs.

“Well, it says here that they travel in packs,” Marco points to a line in the book.

“And they have pin-point accuracy when breathing fire,” Armin continues.

“I guess I spoke too soon,” Reiner says after a pause, crossing his arms.

“They tend to pick fights with one another, especially when it comes to food. Okay, now on to training one…” Armin scans the page. “Ah, here. They like chasing lights?”

“Oh, I know! Like this!” Connie takes off his helmet and positions it in his hands to reflect a light onto Armin’s forehead, missing and shining it right into his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Armin covers his eyes with his arm. “I almost forgot this part… They’re noisy and can’t set themselves on fire. Now on to the next dragon.”

He turns the page, revealing a drawing of a vicious looking dragon _on fire._ It had two pairs of massive horns behind its devilish eyes. It was adorned with a double set of spines along its back, which came together at its tail to form a long fin on its tail. The snout was rather long on the beast, and its claws looked like it could tear apart a viking in two seconds flat. This dragon was two-legged, but walked with its wings and feet.

Eren points to the dragon’s long face and smirks at me, “Hey, it kind of looks like you, Jean!” He laughs. A few others started to giggle, and that earned them a Kirschtein death glare.

I hope the dragon we face next week eats Jaeger.

“Monstrous Nightmare. 21 meters long. Fearless and proud dragons that have the capability of setting itself on fire. They know of their strength, and are usually the first to a fight, and the last to leave,” Armin read, “One way of handling this dragon is to clamp its mouth shut or pin its horns to the ground. Another, which is probably the better option if you don’t want to be killed, is to drop all of your weapons, including a shield...”

“Wait, AND your shield? How the hell is this method less life-risking?!” I yell.

“You have to show it that you’re not a threat unless you want to be treated like one,” Annie says from her spot away from the table.

“Monstrous Nightmares aren’t built just for fighting, some have been seen with fish skewered on their back spines to save them for later snacks. They must also be able to cook them when igniting themselves, too,” Marco adds on to the previous information.

Connie pulls the book over to look at the dragons abilities, “Hey, it says that they can knock over trees and even push some dragons out of the sky with a beat of its wings, and send Vikings flying themselves with a smack of their tail! Not to mention, they’re super fast on land, in air, and in water!”

When summing up what we’ve learned so far, we’re so fucked if we have to fight this dragon.

“Hey, how about we move on to the next dragon, they can get much worse, can they?” Mina says. Armin turns the page…

And they do get worse. Much worse.

A dragon that is 33 meters long with a wingspan of _at least_ 40 meters with the ability to light itself on fire and fly at such a speed to be dubbed as the second fastest dragon. It was called a Typhoomerang, and Eren so _kindly_ pointed out that the commander of the Scouts had one. The book says they were impossible for a Viking to ride, due to their ability to spin in such a way to create a fire cyclone, so I doubt he was telling the truth.

Next in the book, a Fireworm. The cockroaches of dragons. Ironically, the book says that they are afraid of fire, even though they can superheat their skin to temperatures hotter than the sun. I guess they live in hives since the book also says that they make some sort of “fire” honey that gives them their ability. That must also explain the Queen Fireworm; a 25-meter version of the .2-meter Fireworm that can breathe a highly potent fire that apparently rivals the Bewilderbeast’s ice breath.

We kept going over the different Stoker class dragons, dreading over which ones we’d have to be in the arena with until the sun was starting to set.

Off in the distance, we hear a horn, signaling that the training period is over. Finally, time to get some dinner and at least try to get some sleep. We all get up, stretch a bit from sitting for hours, and file out of the arena. Actually, all except for mutton-girl. She still had about an hour left of running.

Needless to say, dinner in the great hall of this training academy was nothing like I expected _at all._


	2. Dragon Training from Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean endures a VERY chaotic second day on the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unedited, I have to get this out before school starts~

I know, I know, we're on an island to learn how to kill and train dragons, but this is too far. The hall was filled with our superiors and their dragons. I noticed some Terrible Terrors, Nadders, Shadis' crazy looking dragon, and a shitload of dragons we haven't seen in the book yet in every corner of the hall, including the ceiling.

"Hey Jean! Why don't you sit with us today?" Marco offers.

"It's not like I really had any plans to sit with anyone else, or with dragons for that matter, so why the hell not," I shrug.

Tables were all set up with mugs of what I hope is water and plates with a variety of fish. I would have enjoyed walking in to see my food waiting for me, but with those Terrors flying around literally taking food from every other table, the set up was otherwise shit. 

The other trainees from the arena earlier were bolting to tables that still had food on their plates, including Marco and Connie, so I had no choice but to run after.

“Isn’t this great?!” Connie shouts, ducking under some dive-bombing dragons. “It’s so chaotic, I love it!”

He makes a sharp left and dives onto the bench of a table. Marco and I follow soon after, throwing our helmets over the plates to block the hoard of oncoming Terrible Terrors from snatching the fish. The little assholes flew away once they realized we meant business, and retreated to the other side of the room to scrounge around for dropped meals.

"Chaotic is an understatement," I mumble, uncovering my plate. A salmon, not too bad. I could have dove for something worse, like a measly perch or tiny herring.

"Can I get a confirmation on what's in the mugs?" I look over to Connie, who has already eaten half of his fish and has raised the mug to his mouth.

"Water," he places it on the table. "I was half-expecting something along the lines of beer."

"Yeah, that would have fit the vibe of this hall," I agree and take a bite of my fish. I turn my head and double take when I notice a mass of Vikings crowded around Eren's table.

"You’re saying that the Bewilderbeast wasn't the only big dragon there?!"

"How did you manage to escape?!"

"Did your village really get frozen over _and_ burned down?!"

So many questions were being flung at the kid, I _almost_ felt sorry.

"I didn't notice it until the second one until the Stationary Guards brought me and Mikasa out of the village and into the wilderness. It just flew by and set fire to the houses that were still in tact, and landed right at the place the rest of the Vikings were fleeing out of."

"Wasn't it called the Orange Death?"

"No way, it was the Yellow Death!"

"I heard that it looked almost like the Red Death the Scouts encountered years ago!"

"W-what about the Bewilderbeast? What did it look like?"

"The Bewilderbeast had two massive tusks, a flat face, and small eyes. I couldn't see much of its body, but the back of its head was a mess of red frills. As for second one did look like a dead ringer for the Red Death. The tail and crest on its head were different from the Red Death though, and it had orange spikes instead of red. If the Scouts took down a dragon like it before, they'll definitely do it again. That's the reason I'm going to join. I want to show those two dragons what a Viking can really do, to show them we don't back down from a fight! I want to avenge Shinganshina and my--"

"You're still going on about that," I laugh. "Friendly reminder, if you Vikings from Shinganshina stayed, you wouldn't have been here today. Going out there to fight two dragons we know hardly anything about is downright suicidal. But hey, whatever floats your ship." I take a gulp of water and rest my head in my propped up hand.

"Someone has to do it," Eren looks over to me.

"Someone has to be suicidal? Well damn, if you want to fill that position, be my guest."

"Woah wait, Jean, just rethink what you're saying," Marco worries.

Eren stands up and turns to my table.

"Listen to me, Nightmare-Face. Someone has to go out there to fight them and learn about them. You seem to like the idea of waiting out an attack on Sina. That kind of thing doesn't work, though. If we fight while it's early, we could defeat them before they take out all of the islands!"

"I'm only being honest. I'm still not taking a one way trip into the jaws of a dragon, so you have fun with the insane Vikings we call Scouts."

A low horn rumbles in the distance.

"ALRIGHT, RECRUITS! BACK TO THE HOUSES TO PREPARE FOR TOMORROW'S TRAINING!"

Vikings and their dragons start flying out of the large double doors in the front of the hall, passing over all of our heads. I pick up my helmet and place it on my head as a passing Terror nabs the half of my salmon I didn't eat.

"Drop it for now, Jean," Marco gets up and places his helmet on his head.

I glare daggers at the back of Eren's head as he gets dragged out of the big double doors by Mikasa and Armin.

 

* * *

 

"How could those Vikings sacrifice dinner to listen to Eren? I would have just brought my fish with me," Connie says as he lays on his bed and takes off his helmet. He hangs it on his bedpost. 

"They probably didn't even get a chance to find any before the dragons robbed the tables," Marco sighs and also takes his helmet off.

....

"I'm so Gods-damned excited to train a dragon," Connie muses, breaking an awkward silence that had filled the room.

"Same here. To fly in the air, kick ass, burn shit, am I right? I mean, until we get to the Center Guard," I smirk to Marco.

"Not necessarily," he smiles back.

My smirk fades.

"Oh yeah, you're excited for the potential best friend you'll be raising."

He just smiles back at me. Would he be smiling through a fucking dragon attack? Sure as hell seems like it.

"Any of the Stoker class dragons catch your eye?" Marco asks no one in particular.

"Yeah, the Monstrous Nightmare. Seems like the most badass dragon so far," Connie sits up. "But I don't think we could ride on one, especially if it can set itself on fire at will."

"I'm starting to question whether the dragons in the book are actually trainable," I sigh and lay on my board- Ehem. Bed. Other Vikings must have thought the same about the dragon that they were learning about; on my way back to this house, I saw boats filled with recruits leaving the docks.

"We wouldn't be learning about their likes if we weren't training them!" Connie looks over.

"Hey, how about we drop the topic of training, I've had enough information about dragons shoved into my head for one day," I rub my temples.

"Well, dragon information AND Shadis' own head," Connie stifles a laugh.

"Shut it, Baldy, you had two of the four heads on his dragon wrap their four jaws around your face," I retort, exaggerating the amount of pain he probably experienced, seeing as there was no mark of it ever even happening. After all, added up, that dragon of Shadis' had eight jaws, four heads, and eight eyes.

"Well, when you put it that way..." He says.

"A-anyways," Marco joins in on the conversation to change the topic, "what were the dragon mascots of your islands?"

Each isle had its own dragon to call its own. Many Vikings from Trost, for example, wore bracers embroidered with a picture of a Thunderdrum; a Tidal class dragon that can blow out your ears with its supersonic voice. Sina island, being the center of it all, had the great Skrill as its emblem, the only other dragon in the Strike class besides a dragon that has nothing written about it.

"Thunderdrum. It kinda looks like a big ocean pancake, if that's the description you're looking for."

"Can't be as laughable as MY island's dragon. Get ready," Connie rubs his hands.

"The ever majestic..."

"..."

Oh, the suspense...

"Gronckle," he throws out his hands for an effect.

One of the most well known dragons besides the Hideous Zippleback and Deadly Nadder. I should have seen it coming. It has a brute build with a bludgeon tail; one might describe it as fat because, lets face it, it really is. Gronckles are perhaps the laziest kind of dragon out there. Being a Boulder class, it diets on rocks; a wise choice for the Vikings who don't give two shits about fishing.

After almost bursting out laughing, Marco saves the day by getting right back to the topic.

"Ah, the most used dragon in the Stationary Guard. Jinae's pride is set upon the back of a Stormcutter," he says.

That's one that I have yet to see.

"Do explain what a Stormcutter is," I turn to lay on my side and look over at Marco who has now laid down on his bed.

"It's one of the bigger kinds of dragons. They have, I guess I could call it a crown on its head, a rectangular jaw and a neck that allows it to turn its head 180 degrees. The distinguishing trait of a Stormcutter is its two pairs of wings. I'm sure it'll say somewhere in the Book of Dragons about its maneuverability. I've never actually seen one perform in person, but I've heard that the Center Guards have their members work with specially trained Stormcutters since they're in the Sharp class."

Jinae’s dragon must be pretty rare if he hadn’t seen one yet. That, or Jinae could very well be a tiny island without any wilderness surrounding it. Everywhere you look, you could easily spot a Thunderdrum. They like to swim alongside viking ships to rob fishing nets, relax on Trost’s beach, and the baby ones have the nerve to fly into the middle of town and screech at Vikings who won’t give them food.

I recall one time when I ran into one of the flat dragons when I was a child. It flipped out when I had nothing to give, let loose a sonic boom, and I almost broke a bone from the force of impact on the side of a house. Can’t say it was one of my proud childhood moments. I wonder if Marco had any encounters with a baby Stormcutter that are just as embarrassing. A Sharp class could definitely do more than a Tidal class, it’s common sense! Besides, Tidal class dragons aren’t on the list of eligible classes to use for where I’m headed.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Only Sharp class and Strike class dragons are used in the Center guard. Guess I'd need to train of if them to get a feel for their handling and shit," I yawn and turn to lay on my back, staring up at the sky through the famous hole in the ceiling.

"Or you could experiment with a Tidal class while you have the chance. Use a Thunderdrum to make your parents proud," Connie jokes.

"Right. I'll find a Thunderdrum and you can grab yourself a Gronckle, while Freckles here trains a Stormcutter."

"No way! I'm getting myself a chocolate-dragon!"

"How much do you want to bet that what you just called it _isn't_ the what it's called?"

"Screw that, I know for a fact that it's not called chocolate-dragon," he yawns.

"I'm going to go ahead and douse the fire pit downstairs so we can get to sleep," Marco gets up and walks to the stairs. He returns once we hear a hiss and the house is plunged into darkness.

"I need to look up that dragon tomorrow in the book, it's driving me insane not knowing its named now..."

"Go to sleep, Connie."

" _Go to sleep, Connie,_ " he mimics in a higher pitched voice as he turns in his bed.

I might just have to look up a Stormcutter in the Book of Dragons tomorrow when no one's looking, a four winged Sharp class dragon is sounding like a great option for me.

 

* * *

 

"RISE AND SHINE, VIKINGS!" A sudden bellow is heard from outside. I turn on my board and pull my wool pillow over my head, it's too fucking early. After a few seconds, I pull the pillow off and look out at the pink sky. 

All of the sudden, a long necked dragon with a dinosaur-like build appears in front of the view and screeches into the house like it just got stabbed or some shit.

"FUCKING-- SHIT!" I tumble out of my bed, narrowly missing landing onto the horns of my helmet. The dragon chortles and flies over to the next house, doing the same thing to the Vikings in there. I smirk when I hear Eren scream a very loud and girly "what the fuck".

"Wha- What's happening?!" Connie jolts up out of his bed.

"Great wake up call, I'd have preferred the singing of Terrible Terrors more, though," I get up and stretch, trying to calm myself down from the fucking heart attack I just received.

"They can sing?"

"No, but you've heard the noisy bastards in the Hall yesterday."

Marco gets up and runs down the stairs and opens the door to see what the training plan is for today.

“Hey, did you write anything down about the… What’s it called… Flame class dragons from yesterday?” Connie gets up and puts his helmet on.

“Stoker class, and no. I figured we’d be told if we really had to,” I reply. Ink is really hard to come by these days and charcoal would just rub off a minute after you write something with it. Hell, no one even knows if the trader comes to this island or not, and if so, _when_ he comes.

“Hah! Knowing my luck, we probably had to,” Connie laughs.

Marco returns with a puzzled look on his face.

"We're going to meet in the Stoker arena again today, but they said the book won't be available for the rest of the week," He walks over to his bed and picks his helmet off of the ground and sets it on his head. I do the same.

"So what are we going to do?" I ask.

"They didn't say," Marco shrugs. "We'll just have to see once we get there.”

_Oh Gods, I hope this doesn't mean what I think it does._

 

* * *

 

The same Vikings from yesterday gather outside the gate leading into the Stoker arena, but something is different from the last time we were here. A web of chains cover the once open top of the arena. 

"Soo, what's with the book not being on the island?" Ymir asks.

"A Scout stopped by early this morning and told us they've made some discoveries. We gave him the Book of Dragons and it's now currently being held at their island. They're reclassifying some dragons and adding new information. We have no idea when it'll be back," Shadis informs us.

Wait, reclassification? That'd mean that if someone from the Stationary Guard has a misclassified dragon, they'd need to say goodbye and get another? Same with the Center Guard, just great.

His dragon suddenly lifts off of the ground and flies over our group and lands behind us, spreading its wings and hissing. And smelling... Weird...

"Gross, what smells like ass?!" Connie shouts, covering his nose for dear life. In fact, we all follow suit, for fear that our lungs would burn to a crisp under the nasty stench.

"We've got two choices for today. If any of you took notes on the dragons from yesterday, you can study off of them," Shadis says, looking unphased from the smell being emitted from his dragon. I look around at the group, realizing everyone else is just looking at eachother. Then...

_FUCK, IT IS WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS._

"But since I've gotten reports of none of you Vikings doing so..."

SHIT, I REALLY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN NOTES. PLEASE SAY THAT SOMEONE ACTUALLY DID.

"We're going with the second option," Shadis steps out of the way of the arena. His dragon walks forward from behind us, herding everyone in. There's no escaping this, he's just going to kill us all for being irresponsible Vikings.

The gate clatters closed behind us as his dragon takes to the air and flies back over to his trainer. What is set out before us in the arena are shields. Lots and lots of shields.

"No weapons?!" Eren yells up to Shadis, who has now moved over to stand above a gate in the arena.

"What are you talking about? You've got weapons right infront of your face!" He shouts back at Jaeger.

Eren looks down at the shields with wide eyes and looks back up at our superior. No seeing who's the better Viking today. Scratch that, maybe never now that we've been left with nothing but wooden circles to defend our lives with.

"This is by far the best way of learning about dragons, which is why the Scouts were left with the responsibility of updating the book. If not out in the dragons territory, it's surviving in the arena to find out a dragon's battle tactics."

_And this,_ I think to myself, _is why Scouts have such short lifespans._

"Now, if any of you were paying attention the slightest, you'll have no problem," Shadis says, placing a hand on a lever. Haha, we were left with one big book for fourteen Vikings to share. We're going to have a VERY big problem.

We all rush to grab a shield off of the ground. I happen to pick one up that has a Thunderdrum painted on it and cringe at the untimely coincidence.

"Good luck with this one, recruits," Shadis nods and cranks the lever. "You're going to need it."

Holding up my shield along with the other Vikings, we prepare for the impending beast to come bursting out of the cage in full fury. The clattering of the chains lifting up the log that lock the gate ring throughout the arena, rising slowly. And then, the metal doors open.

Whispers fill my ears seconds after we realize nothing's coming out.

"Hey, uh, did you check to make sure the dragons were awake?" Reiner yells. Surely, if they weren't awake already, they would be now from his loud mouth.

Speaking of the devil, a small green dragon walks out of the cage; A lone Terrible Terror. It flicks its tongue out of its mouth to lick its left eye as it stops quite a few meters away from our huddle of Vikings. We quickly disperse, realizing this was just a ruse.

"It's so cute!" Krista smiles at the dragon once it looks up at her. She holds her shield out in front of her, though. Any dragon is a dangerous dragon.

"This is a let down," Annie says, pushing some hair out of her face.

Armin walks out to the tiny green beast with his shield at his side. He drops it next to him and holds out his hand to the dragon.

"Armin, what the hell are you doing?!" Eren shouts out to his friend who seemingly wants his hand bitten off.

"I remember reading that Monstrous Nightmares liked the respect of a Viking. I'm simply seeing if it's the same for a Terror," he reaches his hand further.

The Terror squints it's eyes at the curious Viking before it. I do the same when I notice something on Armin's shoulder. A light. I scan the Vikings around me to find what could be the source. Lo and behold, a watchful Sasha is holding her shield out, but the way it's reflecting light from the morning sun is right into Armin.

"Sasha... Put your shield down _slowly_..." I drop mine and gesture with my hands. She snaps out of looking at Armin's progress with the dragon and looks to me.

"There's not a dragon on me, is there?" She shrugs, making the light move around on Armin. Others notice what's happening and look to mutton-girl with scared expressions.

The little dragon in front of Armin hisses and prepares to leap after the moving light. Connie rips the shield out of Sasha's hands and throws it on the ground.

"ARMIN RUN!" Mikasa's voice yells out.

He stumbles backwards and takes up his shield once again. The Terror doesn't make a move. It just stands there with dilated pupils.

"What's another thing about Terrible Terrors?" Bertholdt murmurs.

"Uh, they're slightly venomous, they have pin-point accuracy with their fire... "

"Wait, you never mentioned anything about them being poisonous!" Connie worries.

"And they travel in packs," Marco adds, pointing to the gate. Five more Terrible Terrors crawl their way out, hissing and chirping at each other.

"Okay, how about something that they like now that we have six pissed dragons?" I say, keeping my distance after picking up my shield.

Mina holds onto her shield and directs the light across the ground, gaining the attention of two of the little dragons.

"Here, if we can get some more people to shine the lights on the ground, maybe we can just lead them back into their pen," she says, moving the light around as the Terrors paw at it.

The uninterested dragons start walking around, specifically towards us Vikings. The one Armin tried to befriend has now cornered him against a wall, hissing at him. Two of them have taken flight and are searching for something interesting to pester. The last one, well, let's just say I'm the most interesting one in the room besides Armin at the moment.

"Uh..." I look down at the yellow colored dragon, who's eyeing me up and down. Pff, as if it could really take me.

"Anger it any more and we're all dead," Eren says, watching it _ever so slowly_ inch closer to me.

I start thinking of possibilities, drowning out Eren's pointless antics. There's the shield in my hand. The shield is a weapon. There's also my boot. My boot is also a weapon.

"Jean!" I hear a voice besides Eren's calling out.

"Just use the metal on your shield to get it away, don't do anything rash!" Marco calls over.

He just read me like a book, I really need to work on my thinking face.

I flip my shield around a few times to try and get a light to appear somewhere. Once successful, I start moving it along the stone ground. The dragon took notice and redirected its attention to the ground. Oh how tempting it would be to just... Move my hand and get the light on Eren's foot... Just for a laugh, not to get him hurt or anything. I'm not _that_ much if a dick, I'll admit. I'd just like to see the look on his face when a dragon touches him.

"JEAN!" Another shout calls out once I realize I had actually started trailing the light over to said Viking.

I correct my path and lead the yellow monster back to its den as Mina leads two others there as well. Looking over at Armin, I realize that the first Terror is still hissing at him, and his two friends are still yelling for him to do something.

The two flying dragons crash into one another in the middle of the arena and land on the hard ground. Getting up, they spread their wings intimidatingly at each other and one opens its gas-filled mouth. _Wait, gas?!_

"ITS GONNA SHOOT!" Thomas yells.

And once it does, it sets a few unused shields on fire, alerting the three fuckers that we just got settled back into the cage to come out and start even more shit.

_Oden, help us. This is going to be a long week._

 

* * *

 

We left with the arena at lunchtime with our bodies in tact, thank the Gods. Despite a few burns and bites, we got off the handle pretty well. Shadis had to come in the arena with his dragon once a Terrible Terror latched on to Connie's arm, successfully turning it a gross shade of purple with its venom. 

"I hope I don't need an amputation. Though I gotta say, a hook hand does look pretty cool," he says, looking over at a Viking sitting on the stairs up to the hall who had a peg leg and an interchangeable hand.

I open the doors to the Great Hall and bolt to a table, leaving Connie and Marco to talk. There is no fucking way I'd let a Terrible Terror take my food. Not after today.

"Terrors aren't that venomous, you'll be fine. I'm sure you'll only need a substituted hand if your entire limb gets, well, bitten off," Marco speed walks over to the table I secured with Connie.

“If your entire limb gets bitten off, I don’t think a hook would cut it,” I say as I pick up today’s fish by the tail and examine it.

“What an awful lunch topic,” I drop my fish back onto the plate. Thinking about losing an arm doesn’t exactly make me any more hungry.

It takes me a few seconds to realize that a hand is reaching over my shoulder, trying to grab the fish I just put down. I turn my head to see mutton-girl.

“Can I help you?” I say, raising my eyebrow and swatting her hand away.

“Ahah, you didn’t seem all that hungry when you walked in here,” She backs away a bit, raising her hands in defense.

“I thought Shadis took away your eating rights, what the hell are you doing in here?!” Connie yells.

“SHH! I snuck in behind some guy with a huge dragon and bad eyesight, they didn’t notice a thing! Now, if I could please have a fish or something, this wouldn’t have been for nothing,” She begs.

I sit there looking at her for a few seconds before turning back to my plate. My now empty plate.

“What the fuck?” I say, looking around for a dragon that could have taken it. A fish flies over my head, clipping the horns on my helmet.

“Gods damn it, Connie, I might have eaten that if I sat here a few minutes longer.”

“Haha, thanks Connie!” Sasha smiles and runs over to the hall doors. She slips out undetected by the superiors.

“Hey, if you sat there any longer, an undeserving Terrible Terror might have gotten to it!”

“Point taken…” I mumble, starting to get my appetite back.

A new fish lands on my plate in front of me.

“Here, you take it. I can try my hand at fishing later if I get hungry,” Marco smiles.

"I owe you one," I happily take a bite.

"Maybe more than one, you snapped me out of my thoughts before Jaeger almost got attacked by the dragon I was leading."

"Come again?"

"N-nothing!"

Connie smirks at me and mouths _nice save_. Marco'd have taken the fish back if he had really heard what I'd said. Or did he hear and just not do anything? Who knows, I'm just glad I don't go hungry this lunchtime.

"What do I owe you?" I say in between bites.

"Well, I still have to think about something," Marco sits up straight and puts on a thinking face.

"Nothing that'll get me killed or anything close to the current status of Connie's arm..."

"How about this," Marco starts. "You don't kill that dragon we have to face next week."

I almost choke on fish.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, anything else?”

“You could go fishing to repay me,” Marco smiles.

“Fuck that, I don’t even know the basics of how to fish.”

“Then it’s the dragon.”

I cringe. I really was looking forward to killing it and rubbing it in Jaeger’s face. But, I do owe him. A fish for saving the life of a man-eating reptile, sure. I’d much rather it be fish for fish, but I dont want to embarrass myself with my gods awful fishing skills.

“We’ll see,” I reply.

What am I going to say to Eren? Sorry, I owed Marco for him giving me his lunch, so I forfeit? Thats a pathetic excuse. I’ll just kill it, say it was an accident to Marco, and do something else to owe him. Fuck, I can’t do that. Killing it is one thing, but not being honest about my intentions? That’s not me.

Over the chatting of Vikings and squabbling of dragons, I hear the horn signaling the end of lunch.

“Time to get back to the little sons of bitches in the arena,” I sigh.

“Stoker arena Vikings, you’re all staying in here for the time being,” We can hear Shadis yell over the chaos.

“The hell are we going to be doing in here?!” Connie says loudly.

I look around to find the other Vikings from the arena walking towards a table where Eren, Armin and Mikasa are seated. If we’re going to listen to Jaeger rant about the fucking Scouts, I’m out of here.

“It seems that a Viking did take some notes about the dragons and didn’t want to tell us,” Shadis looks around the approaching group.

Alright, who’s the guy who subjected us to a few hours of excruciating “dragon training”?

All eyes travel to Armin, who pulls out some sort of cards with writing on them.

"Oh come on! Why didn't you say something sooner?" I sit across from the trio from Shinganshina.

"I just thought we could have used an experience like that before we went back to studying," He scatters the cards across the table.

"Something that wasn't boring," Eren mumbles, looking down at one of the cards.

He knew about it the entire time? That son of a-

"It was actually pretty fun," Reiner interrupts my thoughts.

"And now we have to get back to reading," Connie sighs.

"I didn't know... Everyone would be... in here today..." Sasha bursts through the front doors, panting. I bet she probably came from the arena thinking we were going to be tortured again.

"The studying is now in session. Don't even think about leaving the hall, the guards outside all have an eye on the exit," Shadis walks with his dragon past mutton-girl and out the door, leaving us in the hall along with some vikings and their dragons tasked with the job of cleanup, and most likely tasked with the job of watching us as well.

 

* * *

 

Our entire study jam included Armin writing the information out onto even more cards with the help of Marco and Mikasa while the rest of us repeatedly looked over the ones that were already written out. I'd be crazy to say this was more preferable than the Terror attack from earlier. 

"As fast... As a... Night Fury... And we're done!" Armin says, putting down his charcoal pencil. The three writers organize the cards into piles, a card for each dragon. Marco walks around the table and sets a pile in front of me.

I look up at him and mutter a small thanks, my boredness completely evident. Picking up the cards, I look over the names of the dragons. Terrible Terror, Monstrous Nightmare, Fireworm, Typhoomerang... Red Death? You're fucking telling me we missed a page about the dragon that destroyed the villages outside of Sina, Rose, _and_ Maria?!

"I don't remember seeing a page on the Red Death," Christa says, holding up the card in question.

"Ah, I went back after dinner last night to take my notes. The page was stuck to another, and I figured we wouldn't be really fighting a Red Death anytime soon," Armin puts his hand apologetically behind his head.

I look over the information as some Vikings set up the tables in the hall with dinner.

_A supposedly one-of-a-kind dragon with a height reaching thirty meters. It's fire type is Methane. It is classified as a colossal dragon as its entire body can be used as a weapon. From what is known, the dragon cannot manoeuvre well enough to fight if it's wings are damaged in any way. The Red Death can control other dragons and sense when something dangerous is approaching. It's size can be used against it and is susceptible to internal burning if flame from another dragon is shot into its mouth while preparing to fire. Extremely dangerous, do not engage this dragon alone._

_"_ It's untrainable," Reiner concludes. I mean, who in their right mind would even bother trying to train one anyways?

Armin nods.

"I figured I wouldn't have to add that part in."

"Now hang on a second. When you really think about it, maybe a baby one could be trained," Mikasa says.

"True, but wouldn’t it be at least an eight-meter baby dragon?” Eren replies.

“I don’t think we’re going to be seeing a Red Death any time in the near future, let alone get one to cooperate. A dragon that big has to know of its power, and let me tell you, a dragon like that won’t follow anyone’s shit,” I put my Red Death card down on the table.

“What about the Orange Death? The one that I saw? We’re probably going to see him again,” Eren glares at me.

“I said near future, not tomorrow, Jaeger.”

Aaand cue the signal for dinner time. I get up and run over to the table I sat at lunchtime, two tables from the front doors. As I sit, I see Connie, Marco, and Sasha walking over in no real rush. The dragons have only just started piling in.

“I believe you have to go outside,” I speak directly to Sasha. If Shadis sees us affiliating with mutton-girl, we’ll most likely lose out on eating for the next two days.

“Aww, but come on! No one’s noticed me yet,” She sits.

“Yeah, Jean, cut her some slack! I bet you’d be wanting to sit here if you were in her shoes,” Connie says.

“Whatever,” I sigh.

 

* * *

 

This studying and almost getting killed shit is grueling. During dinner, all of the recruits were informed that the book is scheduled to be here in about two days at least, depending on how fast they can draw the dragons and write out the information. What I want to know is why we have to wait six more months to get a dragon egg, then probably wait another month until the egg can hatch, and then we get to the fun stuff. 

“Day two down,” Connie sighs and faceplants into his pillow. I couldn’t blame the guy for being tired.

“What I wouldn’t give for this week to be over. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really wish that the book didn’t have to be taken at such short notice,” I yawn.

“I couldn’t even find out the name of Shadis’ dragon,” Connie says, voice muffled.

“I’m sure you can find out if you ask him tomorrow,” Marco sits on his bed.

“He looks really hard to approach, I’m not sure I want a third dragon bite in a row.”

“Wouldn’t it be the fourth? Or maybe if his dragon uses all of its heads, seventh?” I say.

“Man, stop making it sound worse!” Connie shouts at me through his pillow.

“Well, wouldn’t it be? Unless you’re just counting dragons," I lay back on my board and look out of the hole at the cloudy grey sky.

"Hey, it looks like it might rain... Or snow," I say aloud. Either one wouldn't work for my current placement.

"Maybe you should crawl onto the roof and look for a cover, unless you want to sleep on the ground," Connie walks over and looks up.

"We're all going to freeze if the hole doesn't get covered," Marco says, walking over as well. Connie looks to me with a smirk.

"After you," He holds his arms out, gesturing to the hole.

"Fine... Boost me up," I reluctantly say. Marco steps onto my bed and locks his hands together. I step on and haul myself up onto the roof.

"What if there's nothing?" I look back down into the house.

"If there's nothing, then we might have to improvise," Marco replies.

I jump to the right side of the slanted roof to look for a piece of wood, _something_ that could be used to keep ourselves from freezing to death. I exhale, waving my hand to dissipate my fogged breath and look around. There's jack shit on this roof. I sigh and look to the house to the right of us. They must either be looking for something to cover their hole or someone to cover it for them.

I feel something cold on my nose. _Snow._ I jump to the other side and call down back into the house.

"Nothing! They didn't prepare us at all for snowfall!"

"Look around and see if anyone else found something? Perhaps there's something hidden here we could use," Marco says as he runs downstairs.

I lift my head to look at the house on our left. There's a Viking on that roof.

And I just remembered the Viking who's shacked up there.

"Jaeger? The fuck are you doing?" I yell over, the snow falling thicker. My bed-- board thing is most likely ruined now.

"I'm looking for a cover, the snow's falling right into the house, can't you see?" He doesn't look over to me and brushes snow off of his roof.

"Holy shit, we actually have a similar goal? I thought I'd never see the day," I say sarcastically as I look to the sky.

The raised braisers that light up the island at night hiss with the impact of the snow, lowering visibility more than normal. Sooner or later, they're going to be out and we'll be stuck with nothing but the light from the candles indoors.

I can't pass up the offer of chucking a snowball at Eren before getting back to searching, now can I? I scrape up the snow from my side of the roof and pat it into a compact ball. Jumping back over to the other side of the roof, I hurl the snowball over at him, knocking his helmet clean off his head.

"Hey!" He yells, picking up his helmet. I can tell that the one snowball had just started a war. This guy really had a thing for revenge. He scoops up some snow and gets ready for his retaliation.

Before he throws it, we hear a booming roar sounding above us. I look to the house behind me and see a rather chubby looking dragon drop something off at the hole. Hey, a cover! Seems like they really did prepare.

"Not to burst your bubble, Jaeger, but I believe it's time for me to get back inside," I get up and put my arms up to block a snowball that doesn't come.

"Don't start something if you're not going to finish it!" He yells as I step over the ridge on the top of my house. I slide down a bit to stand on the edge of the hole.

"So throw it, I don't have all night," I taunt, putting my hand on my hip.

The brunette kid launches the snowball at me, but me and my quick reflexes managed to avoid it. It flies into the hole and hits Connie in the arm.

"What the," Connie starts. He looks up to my form at the hole.

A bit of the snow must have melted from the heat coming from inside my house, 'cause when I recovered from my awesome dodge, I slipped and tumbled down inside and landed very uncomfortably on the edge of my bed. I also knocked someone over in the process.

"Nice one, Nightmare-Face!" Eren snickers before the hole cover drops onto our house.

"I wonder if we have access to the catapults, I'd love to have some badass snowball fights with dragons in the future," Connie wipes the snow from Eren's snowball off of him. I think about that idea for a moment before I realize I'm still on someone.

"Hey man, sorry about that," I quickly get up and lend a hand out to Marco who sits up and adjusts his helmet.

"It's no problem, accidents happen," He smiles and I help him up. I could only picture Marco forgiving a dragon for dropping him mid-flight.

"Well, my bed's fucked," I look at the snow-soaked board and pillow. If we don't get replacements, then it'd be at least a week until I could properly sleep on it. Sleeping on the floor wouldn't be much of a difference, though. A pillow and blanket would be the only thing missing.

"You can take my bed," Marco offers. Oh hell no, I'm not going to owe him anything more. And I did just take him out moments ago...

"I'll pass. I could just... Sleep on the floor downstairs by the fire," I start making my way down.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure we don't burn down overnight," I assure Connie, who opened his mouth to say something.

I trudge down the steps and take my helmet off. Now that I have time, I get a good look around the semi-new place that is the downstairs room. The fire pit placed in the middle of the room has spits on top of it for cooking fish and other kinds of food, should we really feel the need to snack. There are chipped and worn shields hung upon the walls, painted with intricate designs that have faded from time. A shaggy yak-fur rug lays next to the fire and infront of the stairs; a perfect blanket and pillow, should I use it right.

I hang my helmet on the wooden banister and pick up the rug. It's a hell of a lot heavier than I expected. I walk closer to the pit and sit, wrapping myself in some sort of cocoon. This might actually be better than my bed itself. I should just remind myself to wake up earlier than the other guys, I probably look like some pathetic child.

My eyes start growing heavy. I look to the embers in the fireplace, reminded of the fight that we'll all need to face next week against a larger Stoker class dragon. Unless, that is, we get hyped up for nothing and we have to bear holding Fireworms for some endurance exercise bullshit. A Monstrous Nightmare or juvenile Typhoomerang are the other two that we have a higher chance fighting. No matter what, it's going to be a dragon that can light itself on fire, and it's going to be a tough one to kill.

But I _will_ kill it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'm sorry I didn't reach the 10,000 word count! 
> 
> You can check out my Tumblr for the dragon and character designs that I have released so far, plush watch for updates and etc. on this fic. 
> 
> If you guys have any fan-art for this series, you can tag it as fic:AoDOFW on tumblr and I'll be sure to check it out!


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